As soon as the decision to prepare for the war was made, and the other courtiers did not object, Zhao Yunrang looked at the body of the privy envoy Wang Deyong, "Xianggong Wang, how many troops are you going to send in this battle, and who will lead the troops?"

Wang Deyong, as the only privy envoy in Bianliang City, heard Zhao Yunrang's question, and knew that he couldn't dodge, so he stepped forward and said: "Back to Your Majesty and King Pu, now we have an army of 300,000 in the north, of which 100,000 were originally prepared to receive the sixteen states of Yanyun. General Wang Xin can also serve as a commander-in-chief and keep the enemy out of the Northland. It's just—"

"Just what?" Seeing that Wang Deyong seemed to have something to say, Zhao Yunrang asked.

"It's just that the Northern Army should refuse to defend in place, or should it first take over the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and then establish a defensive line there? I would also like to ask Your Majesty and King Pu to make it clear."

The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were captured by the Renzong Dynasty, if it weren't for these exploits, he would not have thought of going to Mount Tai to seal Zen, and there would be no assassination.

It's just a pity that after Renzong's death, the court was in chaos for a while, so that it had not really sent troops to enter the sixteen states of Yanyun, and now it was about to start a war with Su Shi.

Wang Deyong would raise this issue at such a time, that is, to warn the other ministers to let them settle the matter. Otherwise, once someone asks about this matter, or even holds him accountable, he can't afford to take such a big responsibility.

As soon as Wang Deyong's question came out, the court suddenly fell silent.

All the courtiers are you look at me, I look at you, and they are all silent.

From their own hearts, of course, they want to take the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun first, which is a great achievement that can be recorded in the annals of history.

But they knew better that the Song army had no grasp of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun at all, and they were not very familiar with some of the terrain there.

In other words, they who have gained face are likely to suffer in the next big war.

If you don't want to save face, with the northern army's understanding of the terrain in the north, there will be more advantages when it starts a war, and the possibility of winning the battle will undoubtedly increase a few points.

Whether it is to save face or to be in the lin, the eyes of the courtiers involuntarily looked at Zhao Yunrang, the king of Pu, who was sitting there, waiting for his final decision.

It was the little emperor Zhao Shu, who was also setting his sights on his father at this moment.

Zhao Yunrang didn't answer immediately, but lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then slowly raised his head and said, "Send an edict to General Wang Xin, let him use the existing territory to deploy defenses. In the land of Yanyun, we can wait until this battle is over to ask for it, and we are not in a hurry."

After all, Zhao Yunrang, who still chose Lizi, was able to make such a decision, naturally with his own ideas.

First, Zhao Yunrang is more pragmatic than Zhao Zhen.

Second, the army has more advantages in staying in the north, which is a major event that can directly affect the survival of the Great Song Dynasty, and he does not dare to be sloppy.

Third, and important. The land of Yanyun was recovered by Zhao Zhen during his reign, and his merits were far less than that of his son. At this time, it is not good to take it. On the contrary, if you lose it when you turn around, then you have to bear the responsibility yourself.

That is to say, why don't you give up there first, wait until you are strong, and get it back in person, so that you can be safe, and the merit will have your own share.

Zhao Yunrang considered it very thoroughly, and then made a decision. When he said this, some of the courtiers thought it was inappropriate, but now that the war was coming, they couldn't say anything, and they wanted to wait to see how things would go before making a decision.

It is said that Zhao Yunrang is different from Zhao Zhen, the latter is benevolent by nature and can listen to the opinions of the courtiers, and most of the time, the courtiers are outspoken.

In contrast, Zhao Yunrang's personality is much more than an only son, and he will listen to the suggestions of his courtiers that are beneficial to him, and he will not listen to those that are not beneficial, and he will even engage in them

The set of accounts after the autumn.

Zhao Yunrang's strength also compressed the activity space and ability of the ministers.

Now that the war is about to start, naturally no one will take the initiative to stand up and challenge Zhao Yunrang's authority of his father and son without long eyes, wouldn't it be that the old birthday star hanged himself, and he was afraid of his long life?

Zhao Yunrang saw that no one objected to him, and after smiling with satisfaction, he said: "It is not enough to have only 300,000 troops in the north, so let's transfer 200,000 troops from the western army to the north and hand them over to General Wang Xin, and Wang De will become the deputy marshal and be in charge of this battle."

For Su Shi, Zhao Yunrang can be said to attach great importance to it.

Before Su Shi left Zhao Song, the two fought several times, but they all ended with Zhao Yunrang suffering a loss. In addition, Su Shi has recently destroyed Goryeo, Liao and Khitan, and now even the barbarians of the grassland have been defeated, and it is impossible to pay too much attention to such a powerful enemy.

"Your Majesty is wise, King Pu is high-minded, and we will agree."

Seeing that the decision was made, the ministers made a sound of sycophancy, and the court meeting came to an end in such a voice.

Zhao Song began to prepare for war, even if the peace talks failed, they wanted to fight, in a vain attempt to keep Su Shi's dragon army out of the country as they had fought against the Liao State before.

When it came to the ownership and transfer of the 500,000 army, the news spread quickly, and it was also known to Long Yin in Bianliang City, so he sent it to Su Shi'er, who had entered the original city, as soon as possible.

Today's original city is already owned by the Dragon Empire.

After taking down the entire Kaqi tribe, and even severely invading the other steppe tribes, things went far more smoothly than planned.

Among them, Jeb played a big role. After taking the original city, Su Shi really kept his promise, not only promoted him to Han nationality, but also left him thirty percent of his property to spend the rest of his life in peace.

After Zhebu received the reward, he was naturally very happy, saying that if necessary, he could do things for the Dragon First Emperor for free until the entire grassland was quiet.

And after the example of Zhebu, many grassland people also took action, and there were many people who took the initiative to surrender, which invisibly increased the speed of Su Shi's control of the entire grassland.

Uzhige was captured alive and Hatu was killed, which means that the grassland is now a group of dragons without a leader, and the originally powerful Kaqi tribe has also fallen apart in an instant, and the entire grassland, many places are full of dragon flags, which means that this place has belonged to the Dragon Empire.

But there are only a lot of places, not all of them. Su Shi himself was not carried away by the victory in front of him. In his opinion, taking the grassland is only a small part of his life goal, and he still has a long way to go in the future.

The original city, the former royal palace of Uzhige, became a temporary residence for Su Shi.

After waiting here for more than ten days, the three divisions of the People's Second Army and the Dragoons, which had been outflanked in a roundabout way, also rushed to converge from other directions.

After the hundreds of thousands of dragon troops were all concentrated in the original city, Su Shi issued several new orders one after another.

First, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Divisions of the Dragoon continued to the west, and after attacking the town of Suteqi, they took the entire Baidandan Department in the south.

At that time, Bai Dadan's troops were willing to surrender and could spare their lives, but if they were unwilling, they would destroy them like destroying the Kaqi tribe, in short, they would take the entire grassland in one go, without giving the enemy any respite.

Second, the people's first and second armies expanded their troops in situ, and it is said that this time in the grassland conquest, there were many prisoners, including some strong and strong athletes, these people have undergone systematic military training, and it is really too wasteful to make them coolies.

Speaking of which, the grassland people are no better than the Liao people, at least they don't have a deep hatred with the Han people and the Dragon Empire now, and they can be more at ease with such people. And because of the living environment of the grassland people, they are upright by nature, and they don't have to worry about what tricks they will play on some things.

Directly accepting the grassland cavalry as agricultural helpers is one of the means for Su Shi to implement benevolent government and take the opportunity to strengthen himself.

After all, there are too many places occupied now, and it has only been a long time, and the original Liao Kingdom and the grassland are all owned by themselves

With such a large territory and so many cities, it is obviously not enough to have more than 600,000 troops.

According to the needs of the situation, the expansion of the army has become inevitable.

Su Shi's gaze fell on Mu Huan, the commander of the First People's Army, and Wang Manlou, the commander of the Second Army, and said, "You can rest assured and boldly expand the army, and I will provide enough supplies later, and you can use these things as a reward to distribute them to the Mongolian people who are willing to join the Dragon Army, and then you will not be afraid of insufficient soldiers." Of course, you also have to screen when you select soldiers, for example, those who have physical problems are absolutely not wanted, and those who have opinions about our dragon army cannot be wanted, and specific things will be treated on a case-by-case basis when the time comes."

"Yes." Mu Huan and Wang Manlou both nodded excitedly.

It has only been a long time since the division has been expanded, and now it can be expanded from an army to a group army, and the number of troops is the establishment of three armies, that is, about 250,000 people.

"Well, the Tieshan Department of the Third Army can also inform him to expand the army in situ in the Liao State, which is also the establishment of a group army, with a strength of about 250,000 troops. In addition, the current fourth, fifth, and sixth divisions should also be expanded into an army, and the number should be set at about 85,000."

Looking at the three division commanders Hu Yanqing, Shi Qianshan and Sun Cheng again, Su Shi smiled.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Hu Yanqing and the others were also overjoyed when they heard this, and said happily.

Seeing that all the generals were satisfied, Su Shi also nodded secretly happily, with the needs of the war situation, the expansion of the army has become inevitable. But this time Su Shi did not expand the three divisions of the dragoons, because he wanted to maintain the purity of the dragoons.